I’m often asked why I don’t recommend any free blog platforms for business blogging. Free blog platforms such as WordPress.com, Blogger.com (Google) and Tumblr.com to name just 3 are a great way to get a blog up and running in minutes.
So why don’t I recommend free blogging sites?
The Problem With Free Blog Platforms For Business Blogging
1. You’re at the mercy of free blogs and their terms
Rules change often online. It’s no different with the free blogs. Get caught breaking their rules, even unintentionally and your blog is suspended without warning.
The terms will differ from site to site, and some are more strict in their enforcement than others. Yes, you could be happily blogging for years and not be affected. I know from personal experience how frustrating it is for a blog, all its content and work to just disappear with no warning and no access to retrieve it for apparently “no reason”.
2. You are not building your own authority
Every post you publish creates a new web page that can be found on the search engines. The post can also be linked to or shared, which helps your site get found online. If you are not blogging on your own domain, that SEO benefit is lost.
3. You’re splitting your efforts
Again, you need to build up your authority and online visibility. With a blog on a separate domain, you need to build up both sites. Additionally, linking to your blog from your main web site is sending potential customers AWAY from your site – and that isn’t why were are here…
4. Limited design and function
Regular readers will know I’m not big on design – simple works best for me! However, design options are limited on free blogs and you may find it difficult to maintain design consistancy between your main site and your hosted blog.
You are also restricted on functionality, unable to add any specific code or scripts. This may not bother non-techy people, but it will irritate your web developer!
5. You look cheap
Sorry, I’m not usually one to judge on appearances. However, I do question the sustainability of a business who blogs at mybusiness.blogspot.com or mybusiness.wordpress.com. I know I’m not the only one who thinks that way, rational or not!
6. Often it’s difficult to transfer to your own domain
Once you start blogging and decide to move on, it is not easy to transfer your work to your own domain. There are issues with SEO to consider too. That authority you have been building up online (point 2), how do you transfer it to your self-hosted blog? Often, you can’t.
7. Ads are often shown on your free blog
You have no control over the advertisers and do not earn revenue from them.
There are advantages to free hosted blog platforms. Never let it be said that I don’t consider my options!
3 Advantages of hosted free blog platforms
1. They are easy to set up with no technical knowledge
2. Free blog platforms often make community building easier as there are established groups and communities already active there
3. Easy to maintain, there’s no messing with updating or security
Before choosing a blogging platform, consider your longer term strategy. Ask yourself:
- What is the main purpose of my blog?
- Will I display ads on my blog?
- Can I see myself blogging this time next year?
If you are blogging in any sort of commercial capacity, whether for your business or to make money from your blog, it is wise to choose a self-hosted option where you maintain control of your content.
My self-hosted blog platform of choice is WordPress.org (not to be confused with WordPress.com!) Installing WordPress onto your own domain is best performed manually rather than the many 1-click solutions available. I walk you through the steps in my Kindle guide, “How To Install WordPress And Build A Secure Blog” available on Kindle at Amazon.co.uk and Amazon.com
I know that many people do not want to get involved in the more technical aspects of blogging. I do offer a “done for you” service. Click for my WordPress services.
Over to you…
Do you use a free blog for your business? What is your blogging platform of choice?
7 Reasons Why Free Blog Platforms Are Bad For Business by Jan Kearney
Grab your guide to local search and learn:
- What elements are important on your website
- How to set up your Google My Business Local Page
- How Google Plus can help you zoom past your competitors
- Two things you should not neglect if you want to rank in the local search pack
- How to power past your competitors and dominate your area
Simply add your name and best email address in the box below and I'll whizz your report and worksheet straight over to you.
Don't worry, I hate spam too (probably more than you!) I'll never trade, share, sell, exchange your email address or any other jiggery pokery.
I’m so with you, Jan, on the self hosted vs. free blogging platforms. Some other issues include ownership of your material, ease of commenting and sharing by visitors (Blogger can be particularly onerous) and branding (which you cover in part, but there’s so much more to this – you touched on in almost every seven of the points you made). Personally, I’ve mostly stopped trying to comment or share on blogs that are not self-hosted (but still forget to check sometimes and usually get frustrated with the failed effort once I log a comment and it’s not approved due to no ID recognition and deleted once the fail prompt comes). Thanks for providing such a useful, easy to understand and relevant post.
Hi Nanette. ownership is a good one. While on the free platforms you still maintain copyright, often you sign away some rights to the platform to reuse and reshare etc. It’s worth looking into their terms.
Yes, I managed to write a whole post and not mention branding once… All of the points touch on it though.
Thanks for popping in and your thoughts 🙂
You make some excellent points. I have always been leery of businesses that use free websites or blog platforms. It’s too easy for them to hide who they are and gives me an impression of a real fly by night operation.
I hadn’t really thought about being at the mercy of the platform’s terms of use before. Just one more good reason to stick with my own domain where I have a little more control
You have a number of excellent articles on your blog, I could browse here for quite a while.
Hi Cynthia, the T&C is a big one for me – I’ve personally been bit both on WordPress.com and a few years earlier on Blogspot (now Blogger). I’m not knocking the platforms, they are much easier to use and can be great as another way to build up your online community and presence. But as your main blog? I don’t recommend it!
Enjoy your browsing, and thank you for commenting 🙂
Hi Jan, you’ve outlined some very good reasons not to use the free blogging platforms for business blogs.
To me, a business which operates its site and blog on one of these platforms is sending a signal that it has no investment in its online presence or marketing.
Hi Tracey, I agree with you. It’s such a small outlay to get going these days, there really isn’t a reason to go free for your main blog. Thanks for popping in and commenting 🙂
If you are planning to run just one blog then I whole heartedly agree with you Jan, onsite blogging is the way to go. Free blogs are often terrible and of little quality. Blogger however, is owned by Google and does seem to have excellent ranking potential. I run a few blogs for clients and we mix it up a bit. We’ll blog on site and we’ll back it up by an offsite blog too. We have quite a few page one slots on a nationwide search on some of these blogger sites and they pass quite a lot of traffic back, addition, because they are off site, they provide very relevant back links (assuming of course that the off site blog is relevant to the main industry).
So, if you only have one blog then keep it on site, but you can quickly build a mini support network with Blogger for free.
Hi Steve – you raise a very good point. Now if I could just get small businesses running 1 blog regularly, I can work on further blogs. The blog platforms do have their uses, they’re a great way to connect and push traffic back (as long as it’s not WordPress.com, their T&C don’t like it!)
Yeah that’s the difficult bit Jan, getting them to understand just how essential one onsite blog is, let alone a network of them 🙂
Totally agree with your points Jan. The value of having a self-hosted blog/website is something I’m always banging on about! Have shared your post in various places 🙂
Thank you Naomi! 🙂 I bang on about self-hosted blogs a lot too lol
The HUGE problem I have with free blogs is that they are so full of crap. That is, many blogs on wordpress.com, blogspot, and others have no focus and no value. And the bloggers on them become bored with their rebellious “niche-less” home on the web that they abandon them quickly. What do they care? They aren’t paying for it.
I speak from experience here as I was one of those types of bloggers for years.
When you go self-hosted and put your own hard-earned money into the thing, you care a little more. That shows up in your content and people will notice it, even if you aren’t bringing in the numbers you think you should.
Hi Angie, I can relate. You really don’t want to know how many abandoned free blogs I have dotted around the place! BUT, it’s how I got my break online. I can’t knock them, they have their uses.
I agree, it is a different mindset when it’s “your own” blog. Thanks for popping in and sharing your experience 🙂
WordPress.org for me and I am a Genesis Framework / StudioPress Snob! Proud of it! Excellent, when I attended Bloggy Bootcamp here in Vegas I was amazed to see how many mom bloggers where still on Blogger or WordPress.com and they wanted to make money blogging. Tiffany Romero from SITS Girls point blank said what you have said here.
Hi Eleanor, I live StudioPress too – not quite a snob yet though! It was “mom bloggers” who inspired this post with a question. As soon as you want to make money from a blog, self-hosted is the way to go. Everything else can be worked on later!
Hi Jan
Totally agree that your main blog should be self hosted WordPress.org.
However I think a satellite group of free blogs like Blogger (as Steve said) Typepad, Blog.com Live Journal etc. can push a lot of traffic back to your main site by posting excerpts of your blog posts.
Sue
Hi Sue, yes snipping and clipping works well – really need to do that again, I’m out of practice! These days it works even better if you can get something additional up there too. The last thing you want is a feeder blog ranking while your site wallows in obscurity lol
One thing I would like to share for anyone deciding to go the free route like WordPress.com or Blogger/Blogspot type sites or other site where you name a page. Even if you are using it as a feeder to your main site – buy the domain name before you use it anywhere. Why?
I came up with a name I really liked, checked to see if the domain was available, it was. I didn’t buy it because I decided it would be quicker to use Blogger plus it was free. I used that name on Blogger and the next day I had second thoughts and decided I had better go buy it. It was already taken, the next day. That fast someone else found that name and bought it. They must have been scraping names on Blogger. If it happens there it probably happens every where.
About 2 months later I get an email and they offer to sell my that domain name for $2000. I didn’t reply but saw they only paid 1 year on that domain so I waited. They didn’t renew it in time. I sat there and checked every hour until I was able to snatch it back for under ten bucks. I was lucky, it only took a year. So if you think there is the slightest chance you will want to own that domain name, buy it before you use it.
That’s a great point, John. I’ve know people this has happened to, perhaps not that quickly, but certainly within days and it’s very frustrating. Glad you got your domain in the end! Thanks for sharing your experience 🙂
Free blogging platforms don’t allow you to monetize your blog either… which defeats the purpose of being online, conducting business.
I’ll never understand (other than the easy to get going part) why people choose to start on a free blogging platform.
The CONS outweigh the PROS from where I’m sitting. Nothing can be said to change my mind. It’s shooting yourself in the foot to start from a free site and when you want to build a community, it’s best if you do it from your own domain first.
Hi Bonnie – yes the cons really do outweight the pros. I can tell you why people start up free – they think they’re saving money. (I did and others I speak to do the same). The reality is though, you are risking A LOT for the sake of a few quid per month.
Great article Jan. I must admit, I decided early that the work blog goes on the site – it seems crazy to me to have it otherwise. I have a personal blog on Blogger, but really that is just a place for me to go and rant lol! Thanks for this, a great message to start my day.
Peter
Hi Peter, I’m with you 🙂
I had a personal one on wp.com. There was all sorts of stuff (rants) there and an occasional link back to a post here when relevant. There were more links to other places and things I had watched/read etc. One day this time last year I went to log in and bam – suspended. No warning, no review, no appeal. Just gone. It certainly wasn’t a commercial blog or even created to push back to this site.
A couple of years ago, I had several on blogspot – one was removed in their clamp down. Again, no warning or chance to retrieve data. Admittedly, that was commercial – but certainly not “spam”.
I think #2 You are not building your own authority is probably the most important. The free blog platforms benefit tremendously from all the content that they get from their members. You should spend your time and effort building your own content on your own site!
Great article Jan, you hit the nail right on the head when it comes to business blogging. I’d say that for most businesses an owned platform is best (self hosted wordpress for example) because you are building another business asset, that’s what you do as a business right? Would someone build other businesses assets based on something they didn’t own or control? For me if I’m building a business (which I define as any website/business activity which I want to make me money) I will be using a self hosted blogging platform.
As a side point I’d like to say that for personal blogging a free platform may be perfect. For me personally after 14 years of blogging using a variety of blogging platforms ~ free, paid & open source ~ the answer is it depends! I have personal blogs on blogger.com, wordpress.com and self hosted.
One last point, I think I might be a blogging addict, I seem to have several!!!!
Hi Jenny, lovely to see you here 🙂 You’re right, of course. A blog is an online asset and it makes sense to build it where you have control.
Since writing this post, Posterous are closing their doors in April taking 15 million blogs offline (there is the option to download content and to transfer to other platforms). Posterous is owned by Twitter – it goes to show, owning your content where you control it is the way forward.